Kathmandu – Nepal U19 team was simply outplayed by strong Scotland team in the second match of ICC U19 Cricket World Cup Qualifiers at Merrion Cricket Club Ground, Dublin. They lost by 57 runs.
Earlier, Scotland U19 won the toss and elected to bat first and were bowled out for 214 runs in a rain delayed match.
Opening the inning, Page scored a brisk knock off 28 runs, 2 fours and a six. Nepalese bowlers could not bowl a disciplined line to them at the start of the innings. Too many wides balls were gifted. Once the openers were dismissed, bowlers tried to control the game. But, Man of the Match F Coleman 81 off 104 balls had a great fifth wicket partnership of 83 runs with Bailwal (39 runs off 50 balls) that changed the course of the match for Scotland.
Once, Krishna Karki removed Bailwal in the 44.3 over Scotland was 185 runs on board. Bhuwan Karki then sent Coleman (81), Henry Edwards (3), Scott Mcelnea (0) and Peter Legget (6) back to the pavilion. Kyle Smith (0) was run out as the innings of Scotland ended on 214 runs. Although Nepal bowled them out for 214 runs in 49th over, it was a upheld task for them in the second innings.
For Nepal, Bhuwan Karki took five wickets. He had a match figure of 10-1-41-5 and was supported by Captain Baskota and Krishna Karki who took 1 wicket each. There were 3 runouts in Scotland innings.
During the chase, Nepal did not start well as it lost two wickets in the first over. Opener Subash Khakurel and Sagar Pun were sent back to the pavilion in the first over. Both Khakurel and Pun were out for a duck in Sadler’s ball.
By the end of the fourth over, Nepal lost Fajlur Rehman (4) as the score was seven runs. Naresh Budhayer was also sent back to the pavilion with only 12 runs. Captain Prithu Baskota and Pradeep Airee stayed in the crease and made 17-run partnership. Airee was sent back to the pavilion in Page’s ball with nine runs to his credit. Rajesh Pulami (16) was bowled by Bailwal. Under 37 runs, Nepal had lost their half of their side.
Pulami and Baskota shared 62-run partnership off 116 balls which was the highest run partnership for Nepal. For Nepal, only Skipper Prithu Baskota gave some hopes with a fifty but it was never a threat for Scotland.
Prithu battled the inning lonely and kept on loosing partners at the other end. He made a solid 67 runs (117 balls, 5 fours and 2 sixes) before he got out. Once he was gone, it was allover for Nepal. Sadler, the Opening bowler for Scotland, took 4 wickets as Nepalese team were bowled out for 157 in 45.3 overs. He just gave 33 runs in his 10 overs with 2 maidens & got support from allrounder Bailwal who took 2 wickets. McElnea and Page took 1 wicket each.
Scotland proved to be too strong for Nepal. Man of the Match Coleman was happy to have played a part in the win: “Conditions were pretty tough. We needed to handle a lot of spinners, because it skidded off a lot. We looked to hit to down the ground and hit as straight as we could. I looked to bat through the innings and play low risk cricket. I thought 200 would be par a score. The chase was tough because it taking a lot more spin towards the end. This makes up for yesterday’s loss to Canada.”
Once again, Nepalese team were disappointed with their batting performance. The bowlers didnot performed well either, they need to settle down and work hard on the net for the next match. Nepal will have a full day rest on Saturday and will play Kenya on Sunday.
| Batsman | Runs | Balls | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| +S Khakurel | bowled Sadler | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| F Rahman | bowled McElnea | 4 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 50.00 |
| S Pun | c Cross b Sadler | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| N Budhaayer | c Bailwal b Sadler | 12 | 34 | 2 | 0 | 35.29 |
| *P Baskota | bowled Sadler | 67 | 117 | 5 | 2 | 57.26 |
| P Airee | bowled Page | 9 | 12 | 2 | 0 | 75.00 |
| R Magar | c Cross b Bailwal | 16 | 51 | 1 | 0 | 31.37 |
| K Karki | run out | 9 | 23 | 0 | 0 | 39.13 |
| R Vishwakarma | run out | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 80.00 |
| B Karki | c Cross b Bailwal | 12 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 133.33 |
| A Karn | not out | 7 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 63.64 |
| Extras | b 0, lb 2, nb 0, w 15, p 0 | 17 | ||||
| Total | all out, 45.3 overs | 157 | (3.45 runs per over) | |||
